The Best Car Chases in Movie History

Car chases have been part of movies from the moment cars and movies sprang into existence at the turn of the 20th century. And most movie car chases are made up of familiar, clichéd stunts. But the best chases do something surprising. They have great driving.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

This is not the Angelina Jolie movie you're thinking of. It's a classic. There's no defending producer-director-star-chief stunt driver H.B. Halicki's original Gone in 60 Seconds as a good movie. The story is disjointed and random, the dialog could have been written by a 4-year-old, every frame of film looks overexposed and the acting isn't even good enough to qualify as wooden. But it does feature a 40-minute chase in which, Halicki was proud to brag, almost 100 cars were wrecked. It's the sort of film we all dream of making while we're stuck in junior high school study hall, but it took real-life junkyard owner Halicki to make it.

Tragically, Halicki was killed in 1989 while filming the sequel in a stunt gone wrong.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

There's a general rule of thumb in Hollywood car chases: When in doubt, wreck more police cars. And while that may be the hoariest of car-chase clichés, director John Landis made it seem fresh back in The Blues Brothers by simply wrecking more cop cruisers than any movie had ever dared, by a long shot. Mid-1970s Dodge Monacos fly by the dozen in this joyous romp built around Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi's Blues Brother alter egos. Throw in plenty of sly dialog and the giddy destruction of the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Ill., and the result is a comedy classic.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

As the life of a Secret Service agent (played by CSI star and legitcar enthusiast William Petersen) slides into anarchy, he takes greater and greater chances with his own life and the lives of those around him. That's brought home in the chaotic chase staged by director William Friedkin that concludes with Petersen piloting his Chevrolet the wrong way down the freeway. But look more closely, and you'll notice that Petersen is driving on the right-hand side of the road while Friedkin has sent the rest of traffic in the wrong direction. It's just part of the insanity that makes this chase simultaneously so disconcerting and thrilling.

The Rock (1996)

There's just something so 90s about Connery and Cage destroying San Francisco in a Hummer and a dated Ferrari.

Against All Odds (1984)

Can a car chase be exciting even if there are no cops involved and nothing crashes? Taylor Hackford's Against All Odds proves that it can be, with this mad race along Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard between a Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole and a Porsche 911SC. Sensitive ears beware, there is some cursing in this clip.

The scene looks seamless but was actually filmed in the early morning hours of successive Sundays when small sections of the normally crammed road between UCLA and the 405 Freeway could be closed. The driving is fast and precise and always looks on the edge of control.

Stunt coordinator Gary Davis drove the 911, but it was then-70-year-old Cary Loftin who was recruited to drive the Ferrari. Loftin, who designed car stunts for films including Bullitt, The Love Bug, Duel, Vanishing Point and dozens of others, is simply the greatest movie stunt driver of all time.

Fast Five (2011)

You could pick any mind-bending stunt driving sequence from this increasingly insane franchise (like the skydiving cars from Furious 7). We'll take the climax of Fast Five, in which the villain-heroes tow a tank vault and rip up the streets of Rio.

The French Connection (1971)

William Friedkin steered this tale of cops and heroin smugglers in New York City to five Academy Award wins including Best Director and Best Picture. This was also the film that made Gene Hackman a star; conventional wisdom has it that Hackman secured his Best Actor Oscar during the rough-and-tumble ride wherein Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle commandeers a 1971 Pontiac Le Mans to pursue a killer speeding above him in an elevated train. It's not only an amazing chase in its own right, it also fits so perfectly with the story and aids in explaining the unyielding, uncompromising and obsessive Doyle.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

If it weren't for Star Wars, Smokey and the Bandit would have been the highest grossing film of 1977. As it is, the film's been continuously popular for more than 30 years now. Kids who weren't born in the same decade that the film was released are able to sing Jerry Reed's "Eastbound and Down" from the soundtrack. The combination of director Hal Needham and his one-time roommate Burt Reynolds results in an enormously self-satisfied movie that mixes excellent car stunts with a great comic performance from Jackie Gleason. But the biggest winner this film produced was Pontiac, which saw sales of the Firebird Trans Am skyrocket after its appearance as Reynolds's ride. For good or ill, Smokey and his stunts are ingrained in our culture.

What's Up, Doc? (1972)

While it's almost forgotten today, Peter Bogdonavich's What's Up, Doc? contains one of the greatest comic chases ever filmed. And it runs almost a full 10 minutes long. Many of the gags in this inspired lunacy wouldn't work without exceptionally precise driving. Go ahead, try and spin a VW Beetle between two buildings. Or just tap a large ladder with the rear fender of a Cadillac limousine. The stunt coordinator was Paul Baxley, who would go on to choreograph most of the chases in The Dukes of Hazzard.

Legend has it that the throttle stuck open on the Cadillac convertible as it was headed into the Pacific Ocean and that the car was traveling at more than 70 mph when the stuntman bailed out of the top. Hitting the water at that speed had to hurt.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)

Just about everyone who grew up during the 1980s remembers this film's classic climax, not because they've actually seen the film, but because footage of the lime green '69 Dodge Charger hitting a locomotive was integrated into the opening of the TV series The Fall Guy. But as vivid as that smashing collision is, it's the pursuit beforehand that's most impressive. Working on a microscopic budget, director John Hough cast actor Vic Morrow as the obsessive pursuing sheriff in a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter alongside veteran stunt pilot James Gavin, then had them chase that Chargerthrough citrus orchards at extremely low altitudes. The result is automotive brilliance and astounding aviation.

The Italian Job (2003)

Minis in a storm drain!

Baby Driver (2017)

It's a hell of a way to open a movie. Baby Driver starts with a rip-roaring six-minute clip of Baby pulling up to pick up his partners is a blazing red Subaru and then driving like an absolute maniac to elude the police. It sets the tone for the best driving movie of 2017. (Here's how they filmed it.)

Bullitt (1968)

Fifty years on, the chase in Bullitt remains the chase against which all other movie car chases are measured. The scene benefits hugely from star Steve McQueen's natural ability behind the wheel: What makes it a cinematic landmark is its sense of realism and quality of its driving.

Director Peter Yates keeps thrills coming, so it's easy to overlook thedozens of hubcaps that fly off the bad guy's '68 Dodge Charger and the fact that McQueen's Mustang seems to pass the same VW Bug a thousand times. That's legendary stunt driver Bill Hickman behind the wheel of the Charger, and when McQueen wasn't driving the Mustang GT 390, it was expertly handled by stunt coordinator Carey Loftin.

Vanishing Point (1971)

Cut through all the hippy-dippy gobbledygook and amphetamine-fueled existentialism in Vanishing Point, and what remains is some of the best stunt driving ever recorded. Director Richard Sarafian gets credit for letting legendary Hollywood stuntman Carey Loftin design and execute Vanishing Point's driving scenes. Loftin handles the iconic white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T with amazing daring, scene after scene, crossing median strips while just missing cross traffic, sliding along dirt roads, and running at what are obviously true high speeds. The story may have aged, but the driving is timeless.

Ronin (1998)

Veteran director John Frankenheimer used the techniques he pioneered back in his 1966 racing film Grand Prix (itself a contender for this list) and applied it to the three white-knuckle chases in this story of mercenaries hunting one another through Europe.

Employing Formula One pilots as stunt drivers, Frankenheimer let loose brawny Euro-muscle machinery like the Audi S8, BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz 6.9 to battle one another on narrow city streets, on roads cut along the French Riviera coast, through tunnels and while driving against traffic on crowded highways. It's one thing to wreck cars in a movie, it's something else altogether to have them driven as brilliantly as they are in Ronin.

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

Roger Moore's second outing as James Bond is generally considered one of the weaker 007 movies. But there stuck in the middle of it is the greatest single car stunt ever captured on film: the Astro-Spiral Jump.

It's a staggeringly difficult stunt that the filmmakers criminally underplay by putting a slide whistle on the sound track while it's performed. So turn off the sound and appreciate watching an AMC Hornet X jump off one ramp, perform a complete 360-degree barrel roll in midair as it crosses a river, land on another ramp and drive off undamaged. No CGI. No wires. No miniatures. It's just solid math.

The Astro Spiral Jump was actually developed by Raymond R. McHenry of the Calspan Corporation at Cornell University. Using a computer simulation program, he calculated how the ramps would have to be twisted, what speed the car needed to achieve, and how the car should be modified (all the weight centered, for instance). After several trials, it was first publicly performed by an AMC Javelin on Jan. 15, 1972, as part of Bill Milligan's All American Hell Drivers stunt show at the Houston Astrodome.

Legend has it that when Bond producer Cubby Broccoli heard of the stunt, he was determined to get it into the next movie. It has never been replicated in any film since.

Mad Max Fury Road (2015)

There's no point in picking a particular scene when this entire movie is one long car chase. But wow, behold what is possible with director George Miller's dedicated to real effects. The result was one of the most breathtaking action movies of all time.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.